Richard Tedlow

One-line: Harvard Business School professor cited by Andy Grove for a business-failure taxonomy: companies fail either because they leave their customers (the “obvious” change — arbitrarily abandoning a strategy that worked) or because their customers leave them (the “subtle” one). — Only the Paranoid Survive

What we know

• “In an analysis of the history of business failures, Harvard Business School Professor Richard Tedlow came to the conclusion that businesses fail either because they leave their customers, i.e., they arbitrarily change a strategy that worked for them in the past (the obvious change), or because their customers leave them (the subtle one).” (Only the Paranoid Survive)

Mentioned in

• Only the Paranoid Survive — cited once, for his business-failure taxonomy.

Open questions

• No further biographical detail is given in the source beyond his HBS affiliation and this one finding.